The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has measured its corporate carbon footprint and is on the way to reaching its goal of being carbon neutral by 2025.

Regional Council corporate operations manager Stacey Rakiraki says the emissions profile is a great baseline footprint of the organisation’s emissions and shows what areas need attention.

“This will be a great tool for us to progress towards being carbon neutral by 2025. We’ll be able to manage our environmental impacts and monitor how effective our initiatives are to reduce our emissions,” she says.

“As the leading environmental agency for Hawke’s Bay, it’s important that we get our own house in order and walk the talk in our response to climate change,” she says.

The Regional Council’s combined carbon footprint across all offices was 884.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the last financial year, according to the report undertaken by EKOS.

Of that, around 86% of the council’s emissions came from vehicle use, including the use of diggers and mowers, 4% from electricity use at council offices, and 10% from flights, gas, and freight and waste.

“The report has highlighted our reliance on fuel, especially diesel. We are replacing vehicles with electric vehicles when it’s fit for purpose, and we will accelerate this initiative.”

“We have seven electrical vehicle charging stations at our head office in Dalton Street and will be installing two extra charging stations to support electric vehicle uptake. We will look at installing charging stations at our regional offices,” she says.

The organisation is also looking at bringing in electric all-terrain vehicles as soon as possible, and more fuel-efficient heavy machinery and vehicles. 

For those activities where there are no viable sustainable replacements such as diesel 4x4 and diggers, the organisation will explore offsetting emissions through planting initiatives and its forestry portfolio.

The Regional Council is going to increase internal staff education efforts around energy efficiency, efficient driving practices and cutting waste.

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